Monthly Archives: November 2013

Thanks for Thanksgiving

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Fifty years ago, this was a short school week. We had Monday off, because of the JFK funeral, and probably went back to school Tuesday and Wednesday (does anyone remember, for sure?) before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Bullwinkle at the Macy's parade, 1963

Bullwinkle at the Macy’s parade, 1963

Do you remember Thanksgiving then as different from previous ones? More subdued, or more thankful for being together with family?

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was on TV that morning. In color! College and pro football was on, too. Some things don’t change. Texas walloped Texas Tech, 49-7. Detroit and Green Bay played to a 13-13 tie, and, in the AFL, Oakland beat Denver, 26-10. President Lyndon Johnson gave a special Thanksgiving Day address to the country.

Best wishes to all for safe travel and a wonderful Thanksgiving.

JFK – That terrible time

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It was late in the school day, wasn’t it?, on that November Friday 50 years ago, when we heard an announcement that shocked all of us and reverberates in many of us still. The President–that relatively young man, that Catholic, that Massachusetts man, that husband and father–had been shot in Dallas and was dead.

The photo of JFK from the 1964 PantherPix, dedicated to the memories of him and Pope John XXIII

The photo of JFK from the 1964 PantherPix, dedicated to the memories of him and Pope John XXIII

Once we were out of school, then began days of grief and of watching television. The constant eye of TV was part of how we expressed and experienced that grief and anxiety. We didn’t know then that the rest of the Sixties would bring us more killings, at home and across the Pacific, in Vietnam. That this killing would somehow mark the beginning of years of strife, death, protests, and more.

On that Friday, all sorts of things, including after-school activities, were canceled. That weekend, the focus was on Dallas and Washington and many people stayed home to watch the President’s body brought to the White House, then the Capitol, then to Arlington National Cemetery in a three-day state funeral, ending that Monday.

What do you remember of that day? That weekend? Did you see the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald live on television?

Hangin’ out

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Where did you hang out on weekend nights? You know, those places where you expected to find kids you knew, either from school or the neighborhood.

Think of the hours we spent nursing sodas, munching pizza or burgers, talking, laughing, having spats. The hangouts were crucibles for sometimes intense interaction . . . and they were places where many hours were spent on pretty much nothing.

In the South End, one place was Ray’s Grinder’s on Longhill Street. Here’s a picture of the place now, from Google Street View. It’s called Antonio’s.

Current view of what was Ray's Grinders in 1963-64.

Current view of what was Ray’s Grinders in 1963-64.

One expects and certainly hopes the place has been renovated in the last 50 years, but it remains very true to its early-Sixties self. The parking lot in front, the “patio dining area” at left. The food there today is rated quite good on Yelp, but food was probably not the criterion in our day.

On Hungry Hill, it was the Van Horn Spa, affectionately called “Leo’s” after its owner. It was on the corner of Carew and Armory streets, across from Our Lady of Hope church. Sadly, it has succumbed to “progress” and is no longer there.

Kids today have many more options for entertainment, but our lack of same may, at least, have encouraged us to get out and about and connect with others. Sure . . . it also led sometimes to trouble. Is it better now to be safe and in front of a video box?

 

Future of CHS?

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Many of you, certainly those in the Springfield area, know of the terrible damage done by the summer 2011 tornado to the Cathedral High School building in which we went to school. The building, in fact, is vacant and has been partially demolished. Classes are being held in a former Wilbraham elementary school, as the diocese determines how to proceed.

The science wing, as we knew it, was particularly damaged in the tornado.

The science wing, as we knew it, was particularly damaged in the tornado.

The diocese received a reported $50 million insurance settlement in September and is seeking additional financial support through FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to an article in today’s Springfield Republican, there remains uncertainty and concern about what the new Cathedral High will be, and where.

Back then

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By mid-November 1963, early in our senior year at Cathedral, the world was setting us up for a very “interesting” time. Looking back, it may have been near the “end” of something and the beginning of something very different.

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan perform at August 1963 civil rights rally in Washington, DC.

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan perform at August 1963 civil rights rally in Washington, DC.

Martin Luther King had given his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, DC, that August. The Second Vatican Council was underway. President Kennedy received the final report of his “Commission on the Status of Women.” And, at the beginning of November, in South Vietnam, a place still pretty obscure for most of us, its president, Ngo Dinh Diem, was arrested and assassinated in a coup tacitly accepted by the US.

In more popular arenas, the LA Dodgers swept the Yankees in the World Series, with Sandy Koufax winning two games. New shows on TV that fall included The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, The Patty Duke Show, and Petticoat Junction. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had debuted in theaters on November 7. Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen was very popular at the time, as was the Ronettes’ Be My Baby. The Beatles were still in England.

Check out the page “Back Then” for more on what was going on in our world in 1963-64. What about at Cathedral? In Springfield? Western Mass.? That’s harder to find, and remember perhaps. What was big at school in fall 1963? Anybody have old copies of the Cathedral Chronicle?

In honored memory

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On this Veterans Day, let’s remember the many classmates who have served this country in the Armed Forces. And let us honor, in particular, three classmates who gave all, in Vietnam.

JamesBogaczJames Bogacz died August 27, 1969, at age 23. An Army corporal, he was killed in Thua Thien Province.

 

 

CharlesParsonsCharles Parsons was killed February 28, 1968, when the helicopter in which he was riding on a recovery mission to Khe Sanh was shot down. He was a Marine sergeant and 21 years old.

 

 

MRivestMark Rivest, of Chicopee Falls, was killed on June 4, 1970. A first lieutenant in the Army, he was 24 years old at his death. An article in the May 28, 2007 Republican about Springfield men on the Vietnam Memorial Wall featured Mark’s service as a member of Army Special Forces. Great photo and information. Tom Robinson made a pdf of the article — Mark Rivest-The Republican

The names of these men, of course, are engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. Information was collected from the Virtual Vietnam Veterans Wall of Faces.

If we lost another classmate in Vietnam or during military service, please let us know. And if you knew any of the men named here, we welcome recollections and comments.

Rest in peace, James, Charles, and Mark.